FBI AND BUREAU OF JUSTICE STATISTICS AWARD $24.2 MILLION TO LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES TO SUPPORT NATIONAL CRIME-REPORTING INFRASTRUCTURE
Funding is part of the 2016 National Crime Statistics Exchange initiative

WASHINGTON – A total of $24.2 million in grants has been awarded to U.S. law enforcement agencies through the National Crime Statistics Exchange (NCS-X) initiative to support infrastructure for national and consistent crime reporting, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The NCS-X program is funded by the FBI and administered by BJS.

A total of $18.7 million will support the transition of 16 of the largest local law enforcement agencies to their states’ incident-based crime reporting systems. This state-level crime data will be shared with the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), which will allow for greater transparency and accountability among police agencies.

A total of $5.5 million will support Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Programs in seven states in FY 2016, in addition to the 14 states that received awards in FY 2015. The awards are to develop or enhance the state’s program capacity to collect detailed incident-based crime data from police agencies throughout the state.

“NCS-X awards mark a substantive investment by the Department of Justice in the crime-reporting infrastructure used by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation,” said Jeri M. Mulrow, Acting Director of BJS. “The Criminal Justice Information Services Division of the FBI has been a tremendous partner in the grant making process.”

Through the NCS-X program, and with substantial support from the FBI, BJS is actively recruiting a sample of 400 additional law enforcement agencies to add to the more than 6,600 agencies that currently report to NIBRS. The expansion is a scientifically targeted approach to help build the crime-reporting framework in a strategic manner to support the FBI’s broader efforts to establish NIBRS as the crime reporting standard for all law enforcement agencies across the country.

BJS, in partnership with the FBI, advocates the use of a state pipeline for national crime data reporting. Local police agencies funnel incident-based crime data to their state’s NIBRS-certified UCR Program, and then the state agency sends data from all contributing agencies to the FBI. As more local agencies transition to NIBRS reporting, the state pipeline must be enhanced to ensure that the state’s UCR Programs are capable of receiving and processing the increased flow of local incident-based crime data.

Awards to support the transition of local law enforcement agencies to NIBRS included—

The agencies that received the awards to transition to NIBRS reporting are following the lead of other large agencies across the country that have transitioned to NIBRS, such as Detroit, Milwaukee, Nashville, and Richmond, Va. An additional three large agencies—Chicago, Dallas, and Montgomery County, Md. police departments—have already received NCS-X pilot funds to make the transition, and three other large agencies from the NCS-X sample—Louisville Police Department, Indiana State Police, and Seattle Police Department—have moved to NIBRS reporting on their own in recent years. Based on available funding, other law enforcement agencies may receive awards to participate in the NCS-X initiative in FY 2017.

This effort aligns with recommendations made by prominent law enforcement and other national leaders as part of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), headed by Assistant Attorney General Karol V. Mason, provides federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice and assist victims. OJP has six components: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking. More information about OJP can be found at http://www.ojp.gov.